MEDIA ADVISORY, July 13 /Christian Newswire/ -- The World Congress of Families congratulates the organizers of Ireland's huge "Celebrate Life" rally, which took place in Dublin on July 7.

Larry Jacobs, Global Director of the World Congress of Families, commended Youth Defence, the Pro-Life Campaign and the Mother and Child Campaign for organizing Ireland's largest pro-life rally in 15 years. "This is the type of grass-roots activism that's needed to demonstrate popular appeal for the pro-life agenda and to counter a culture of death," Jacobs commented.

Prior to Ireland's last national election, pro-life groups were able to wring guarantees from both of the major parties that, if elected, they would not legislate for abortion or embryonic stem-cell research. The march was part of a campaign to keep the current government true to its word.

Abortion is outlawed in Ireland's 1983 constitution. But a 1992 ruling by the nation's high-court called the prohibition into question. The constitution's pro-life provision is also under attack by social planners in the European Union and European Court of Human Rights.

Jacobs noted that compared to the thousands who attended the pro-life rally, only 80 showed up at a pro-abortion demonstration the previous week. "Anti-life legislation is never driven by popular opinion," Jacobs commented, "only by elitists who think they know what's best for the people."

Jacobs said declining birthrates threaten the future of Europe. "The Irish understand that abortion contributes to national suicide. Europeans should be thinking of ways to encourage marriage, child-birth and family life, rather than indulging in their narcissistic infatuation with an atomized individualism."

World Congress of Families IV was held May 11-13 in Warsaw. Co-sponsors included Human Life International and the Polish Federation of Pro-Life Movements, among other pro-life organizations. (go to www.worldcongress.org/WCF4/wcf4.co.htm to for a complete list of co-sponsors)

The Warsaw Declaration, adopted by the Congress, commits World Congress of Families to promote "respect for the life of every human being, from conception to natural death, versus discrimination against and destruction of the weakest." (go to www.worldcongress.org/WCF4/wcf4.dec.htm to read the full Warsaw Declaration)

The World Congress of Families (WCF) is an international network of pro-family organizations, scholars, leaders and people of goodwill from more than 60 countries that seeks to restore the natural family as the fundamental social unit and the 'seedbed' of civil society. The WCF was founded in 1997 by Allan Carlson and is a project of The Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society in Rockford, Illinois (www.profam.org). To date, there have been four World Congresses of Families – Prague (1997), Geneva (1999), Mexico City (2004) and Warsaw, Poland (2006).